Steven Furtick - Can Something Good Come From This?
This is an excerpt from: Something Good Is Coming From This!
You don't have to be in a certain place for God to fulfill his promise over your life. I'm going to break that down. "When my kid starts acting right, I'll be happy". No. I'm saying, "No". The Lord spoke in Egypt. He brought his Son out of Egypt. He spoke to Joseph in Egypt. You still missed it. You think God is waiting for stuff to change. You think joy is going to be when things change, but it won't. You have to get it out of Egypt. You have to learn how to be in a bound place, a broke place, a hard place, a tricky place, a sticky place. Now, when the people of God left Egypt under Moses, the Bible says in Exodus, chapter 12, that they didn't just leave Egypt with their heads bowed low. "Oh, we're just so ready to get out of here". It says they asked the Egyptians… "The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for".
So, listen to what God's people did. They plundered the Egyptians, and they left Egypt with treasures. They left captivity with treasures. They left darkness with treasures. Did you know you need to plunder your depression? Did you know you need to plunder your anxiety? Did you know you need to plunder your addiction? Here's what I mean. The same thing that drove you to be such an addict is the same drive by the Holy Spirit that God is going to use to make you ferociously committed to his purpose. So, don't just get the message "He was born in Bethlehem". Get the message "He was called out of Egypt". Jesus went back to the place that represented captivity, and he declared to the place that represented captivity to the people of God, "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed". Oh yeah! I'm leaving this year with stronger character. "Something good is coming from this". I'm not leaving Egypt until I learn what God wants to teach me. I'm not leaving 2021 empty-handed! I'm leaving!
Ten people, throw your hands up and say, "Something good is coming from this". Come on. You have to do the hand motions. Say, "Something good is coming from this"! Something good. The Lord said you have to say it like that. Something good. I don't know what. Something. I had something hit my life a few weeks ago. This is where the confession came from. I didn't get this message for you; I got it for me. Something happened a few weeks ago to me, and I was like, "O God". You know that little sick feeling in your stomach? Then you have a choice whether you're just going to give in to that. Then, for me, it's like Netflix. I'll spend two hours shopping and not watch anything. So, this thing… It wasn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing that I heard about. It just scared me. It was a personal thing.
I thought, "Well, you could sit there and play this out a hundred different ways it could go wrong or…" And this is the thought that came to me. "What if it works out for your good? What if the Devil is a liar and God is true"? What if he really does take what the Enemy meant for evil and turn it for good? What if that's not just an anthem? What if that is an actual fact about God's purpose? Now, if you're not carrying Jesus, you can't receive this message, because if you're not carrying Jesus, then you don't know about the purpose of God. If you don't know about the purpose of God, you will shout over something good to think it is going to match your exact preference for your life. So, what happened when the news came… I started walking around the house, and I just started saying what I just told you. "Something good is coming from this". Well, actually, I said it differently the first time. Then the Lord corrected me. I said, "Something good can come from this". The Lord was like, "That's a good start. That's a good first draft". So, that's my first draft of faith. "Something good can come from this. It could…50/50. You never know. When life hands you lemons…"
So, I was walking around saying that, and the Lord was like, "That's not faith, 'Something good can come from this.' That's just statistical probability. That's like, 'Is it going to be a boy or a girl?' That's just like flip a coin. 'It could. Something good could come from this or it could be the end of you.' You just leave it open-ended like that". So I revised it. I was like, "All right. Something good will come from this. Is that better, Lord? Do you like that better, Lord"? It wasn't an out-loud conversation. This was just in my heart. I'm acting out for you how I felt it inside. The Lord was like, "That's better, but it's not the bull's-eye". When you say something good will come from this, you still have it out there in the future. You're still thinking, "When I get there, I'll praise God". You're still thinking, "One day I'll have a story to tell about the goodness of God". You're still thinking, "One day I'll see it. It'll all make sense in the sweet by and by". ("And we'll understand it better by and by".) The Lord said, "Put it on here and now, and have the faith to say, 'Something good is coming from this'".
Now, Furtick, you said your word was fruitful for 2022. How does God produce fruit? Well, it often involves soil, which is dirty and dark. The fruit of the Spirit is not money and cars and stuff, which is all fine. I like my car. I like having something to drive that is fast and that starts, because I've had stuff that didn't, and I'm glad when mine does. I don't apologize about any of that, but that's not the fruit of the Spirit. That's not the best stuff. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So, how is God going to bring forth that kind of fruit? Self-control. To put me in a situation where I have to control myself. How is he going to give me peace? By putting me in situations that don't feel peaceful.